Neighborhood Justice Center

NJC is legal service corporation that has been providing
comprehensive criminal defense services to low-income and indigent
people in the East Metro area with a focus on communities of color
since 1973.

The agency focuses its work in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the
surrounding East Metro area.

Learn more about the services and vital role the Neighborhood
Justice Center provides the community.

Full-Time Staff Attorney - Open for Applications - Posted 08.03.2016

The Neighborhood Justice Center, Inc. (NJC), is seeking a talented, community-oriented
Attorney to join our legal team on a permanent, full-time basis. This Attorney will carry a full
load of criminal defense cases, and will participate in community education, expungements and
issue awareness opportunities.

The Neighborhood Justice Center is proud of our client, Mr. Lollie,
and his respectful and absolutely reasonable responses to the police
in this situation. Thankfully, Mr. Lollie had the wherewithal to
record this incident, because without the video it would be hard for
many to believe that this happened in our city, and few people want
to believe that our officers would abuse an average man for sitting
in a chair, waiting for his children from daycare. But this did
happen, and we must stop this abuse of power before more needless
harm and deaths occur. Mr. Lollie broke no laws, and his case was
properly dismissed due to the hard work of our attorney, Lucas
Rezac. However, even though the case was dismissed, the
circumstances still make me utterly ill, as justice has not been
served for Mr. Lollie. Simply by listening to this video you can
feel the fear and pain in Mr. Lollie's voice, but you can also hear
how police truly talk to people like Mr. Lollie when they think no
one is listening. Situations like this permanently damage our
communities and the faith we have in our police. The actions of the
Officers in this case demonstrate how our society is still
segregated in many ways, and Black men in
our very community are regularly subjected to bias
suspicion and unjust treatment by the hands of our police. While
most police officers are hardworking, honest people, the Officers in
this case clearly show that the St. Paul Police Department, and
police departments all around our country, need to realize that the
abuse of power by officers like those in Mr. Lollie's case destroy
public trust in police, and in turn make
our streets less safe.

We must take this opportunity to demand change from our public
servants. Officers who have abused the public's trust must be held
accountable, just as we hold members of the public accountable who
break the law. We hope that the Internal Affairs process will result
in proper punishment for all Officers involved, but sadly, it is
extremely rare for officers to be punished for their misconduct,
because the Internal Affairs process is police monitoring police,
and no one wants to punish their co-worker. More incidents like Mr.
Lollie's will happen unless honest discussion occurs on the part of
police about how to heal the harm that has been caused by the
militarization of our police departments. We do not need more police
with more guns and more confrontations - we need more police who
smile and treat every
person with the respect they deserve. Moreover, good police officers
need to stand up and demand this change too, because their
co-workers are destroying the public trust that good officers rely
on to do their job correctly and safely.

Join me and demand accountability for community members who have
been abused by police. This is
our community, and we must act now, or face more situations
like this in the future. My heart goes out to Mr. Lollie and his
family. I sincerely hope our community can use this horrific
situation, and the similar incidents we see daily on the news to
create positive change for us all.

A Non-Profit Community Based Law Office

Neighborhood Justice Center is a non-profit community based
law office. For NJC to continue to ensure that low-income
persons and persons of color receive fair treatment in the
legal system we need your support.